I’ve been thinking about classes a lot recently. Not about teaching them as much as taking some. I think the last time I personally took a real class it may have been 2013…
I love taking classes. Really, I love being in a class. I’ve taken a ton of classes about spinning techniques that I never thought I would use but I grew and learned and applied a ton of what I learned to the yarns I do make and use all of the time. That class on Boucle and the other one about making beehive yarn that I took with Jacey Boggs years ago…well, if you are a subscriber to Ply Magazine and have th Boucle issue, you know my boucle skills are not where they could be, lol…but! I learned some new ways to hold my hands during drafting, some tiny adjustments that made a giant difference. I took a three day class 10 years ago now with Stephenie Gaustad all about spinning cotton. I almost never spin cotton but my long draw improved about 300% because of that class.
So, since I haven’t taken a class in over 4 years and I am not teaching all the days at PlyAway in March I signed up for 2 classes. One is with Deb Robson who is a fabulous teacher and I love her and her approach to sheep/wool is different than mine and so it’s good to get a new angle sometimes.. The other is a photography class with Bernadette Emerson who is the photographer for Ply Magazine. My photography skills need some help and so here was my chance.
Here’s where I get a little preachy. I was scrolling around Facebook and then the Ravelry Forums this past week and there were a lot of people asking questions. Some of the questions were complicated and some were a little easier. Often I want to advise every single person to take a class. It is so much easier to see how to do some of these techniques than to explain them in writing. Something that could be shown in less than 30 seconds sounds so complicated in writing. It sounds so flip but I really mean it. The knowledge you gain from one class with a teacher who knows her/his stuff is worth every penny and every moment.
So many times I’ve been in the first hour of a six hour class and I show a little trick to someone and they say “that was worth the money right there!” Those little tricks can’t be explained often because it can be the difference of moving your yarn a quarter of an inch up your finger or turning your wrist an eighth of a turn. You can’t get that from a video either.
If you can’t find a class get to a guild meeting even if you have to drive an hour each way once a month. It’s worth it!
I’m serious. Take a class.
In the meantime, let’s spin and weave together. The kits for the January spin and weave along are in my webstore now. You can place an order for them through midnight on Thursday the 7th. And if you haven’t signed up for the Spin and Weave Along Newsletter yet you can do that now. And here’s a link to the one that went out on Thursday the 30th of November that talks about what’s going to be happening.
